Daniel Wiffen fell short of his first target time on the opening day of the Irish Open Swimming Championships in Bangor, despite winning the 1,500m freestyle by almost half a minute.
The Olympic 800m champion won in 14:51.38 having said last week he would “have to be sub-14:40” to feel satisfied that his recent training in California has been going to plan. Wiffen’s twin brother Nathan was second in 15:20.88.
“I’d say it’s 50/50 as to whether I’m happy or not with the swim,” Wiffen said of his performance. “I need to look at the splits. I felt really good up to like 1,000m, and then I felt like I kind of faded away a little bit and was seizing up.
“That’s good for an 800m, that’s good for all other events, whereas with the 1,500 sometimes you go unbelievable, and then sometimes it’s not good at all. And that was kind of middle ground, so I’m pretty pleased, but also kind of disappointed.”
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Wiffen, who’s lifetime best in the 1,500m is 14:34.07, will also swim the 200m, 400m and 800m in Bangor.
The 24-year-old has been based at the University of California at Berkeley (UC Berkeley) since last year, training alongside Nathan. Although he has already shown signs of getting back to his best after undergoing appendix surgery last September, he’s not yet convinced it’s the best path towards defending his Olympic 800m freestyle title at the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.
Grace Davison won the 100m freestyle final in 54.88 having set a new Irish senior and championship record of 54.45 in the morning’s heats, with Danielle Hill second in 55.92.
At 18, Davison has now qualified for this summer’s Commonwealth Games and European Championships.
“It’s all learning for me, it’s interesting to see that I can go quicker in the morning than in the final,” she said. “I’m really happy to get all those times out of the way on the first day of the competition, it’s pretty cool.”
In the men’s 100m freestyle final, Evan Bailey improved on his morning time to win in 48.98, his second personal best of the day and under the qualification time for the European Championships. James Ward from Bangor won silver in 49.54, with Lisburn City’s Matthew Hamilton picking up bronze in 49.89.
Jack Cassin impressed in the 200m butterfly, winning in a personal best and championship record of 1:57.05, breaking Brendan Hyland’s 2019 record of 1:57.21 to also qualify for the Europeans in Paris.
Ellen Walshe took her first win of the week in the 200m butterfly final, also and well under the qualification time for the Europeans. The Templeogue swimmer was the clear winner in 2:09.74 ahead of Ulster’s Alana Burns Atkin (2:16.44) and Eve Leleux (2:23.71).
